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Project Officer

Communities of Practice

16 June 2011

infoDev is seeking to hire a Program Officer to Lead the Communities of Practice and Training programs. The Program Officer will report to Operations Officer (Ellen Olafsen) on a day-to-day basis. The focus will be on building and leveraging infoDev's vast global incubation network and its capacity building programs.

Background

infoDev (www.infodev.org) is a Global Partnership Program, coordinated and served by an expert Secretariat housed in the Finance and Private Sector Vice Presidency (FPDVP) of the World Bank Group. Its strategic goal is to promote the growth of technology enterprises to enhance sustainable inclusive growth, competiveness and jobs.

infoDev is a thought leader in ICT4D and technology-enabled small business incubation. infoDev’s global incubation network reaches to 300 plus business incubators, and more than 20’000 small and medium enterprises and has helped create over 220’000 jobs across 87 developing countries. It is now developing more specalized business incubators in the fields of climate technologies, mobile applications and agribusiness. Within the WBG, infoDev has also been recognized as being cutting-edge in its use of web-based resources to develop, publish and disseminate its work and facilitate debate and interaction among and between client countries and donors.

infoDev is implementing an ambitious work program, which includes:

The “Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy Program” - a public/private partnership between the Government of Finland. infoDev and Nokia – which will launch a range of activities including establishing regional mobile applications laboratories, using social networking platforms to link mobile entrepreneurs, launching a program to help technology-enabled small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) gain overseas market access, running international working groups on ICT and agribusiness entrepreneurship, facilitating access to appropriate financing instruments for technology entrepreneurs and preparing SourceBooks as guides on how ICTs and innovation systems can be best used in agriculture projects. The program addresses a mix of global activities with country and regional activities in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA).

A seven year “Entrepreneurship Program for Innovation in the Caribbean (EPIC)”, which is designed to create and grow competitive Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) across the region by: (i) using business incubation to provide a suite of services for start-up entrepreneurs comprising of advisory services, mentorship, and access to office space and equipment; (ii) upgrading skills and capabilities of incubator managers and policymakers supporting MSME development; and (iii) providing seed funding to promising MSMEs to help them successfully scale their operations.

The “Climate Technology Program (CTP)” builds on infoDev’s SME development and incubation success, the Climate Technology Program (CTP) was launched. The CTP is developing a global network of Climate Innovation Centers (CICs) that provide a country-driven approach supporting domestic capacity - primarily SMEs - in clean tech and climate-related sectors. Each CIC will provide early stage financing and other services to enable domestic industry and SMEs to pro-actively and profitably develop innovative climate technology (Cleantech) solutions that meet local needs. This not only helps a country address climate change challenges but creates economic development, job creation and industrial competitiveness. The CICs fit within and complement FPD's strategic priorities, including economic competitiveness and private sector development.

Duties and Accountabilities

infoDev is seeking to hire a Program Officer to Lead the Communities of Practice and Training programs. The Program Officer will report to Operations Officer (Ellen Olafsen) on a day-to-day basis. The focus will be on building and leveraging infoDev’s vast global incubation network and its capacity building programs. Specifically, the Program Officer will be tasked to:

Develop infoDev’s strategy with regard to the development and implementation of communities of practice, networks and training programs;

Supervise the task managers of the various communities of practice and networks, and directly task manage some of these as required;

Assist Program Coordinators of the three core programs with the establishment of new communities of practice (i.e. mobile), networks (i.e. Caribbean) and Climate Innovation Centers (CICS) as required;

Ensure integration of the communities of practice and networks in the execution of the Access to Markets and Finance program, as well as other pertinent infoDev deliverables;

Oversee the development and maintenance of www.idisc.net and of new websites developed to support communities of practice and networks;

Produce an annual “network trends” report analyzing successes and emerging trends in the global and regional networks. This would be published externally and be used as input to future infoDev program and product design;

Develop a robust business model and system for delivery of high quality training to business incubation managers, mobile applications labs and climate innovation centers, and manage the execution of the same;

Oversee continued curriculum development for the training programs, leveraging outputs from the communities of practice, networks and research; and

Assist the Global Forum Task Manager with designing and delivering the next Global Forum, fully harnessing the relevant communities of practice and networks.

Selection Criteria

At least a masters degree in marketing, communications, knowledge management or similardiscipline and minimum five years of related Bank and/or external experience;

Extensive experience and demonstrated track record in developing and expanding networks, communities of practice, associations or similar endeavors at an international scale, preferably focused on business communities;

Experience in developing and managing training programs;

Excellent communication skills, including the ability to communicate effectively with staff, clients and partners at junior and senior levels;

Excellent writing skills and command of the English language. Additional language skills would be a plus;

Positive, energetic and ambitious work attitude, willingness to work within a team environment;

Capacity to manage multiple complex tasks in parallel; and

Problem-solving orientation.

The World Bank Group is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, nationality, culture and educational background. Individuals with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence.